Shanghai Scrap

The Obama inauguration took place at 1 AM, China time, but circumstances conspired to place me in a location where I could not watch the ceremonies live (via cable, satellite, or stream). On the bright side, that unforeseen circumstance allows your correspondent to report that the inauguration was not broadcast live on Chinese television (at least, not in Shanghai). However, frantic channel surfing did reveal that the CCTV news channel broadcast a small portion of it [see below: I got this wrong], with translation, and then shifted to a biographical commentary on the president. It ran for ten minutes (after I landed on it), and looked like this:

Theoretically CCTV has as much reason to run Obama’s inaugural address as MSNBC has to run Hu Jintao’s remarks to his next party congress (at 1 AM). And, despite what appears to be palpable popularity for America’s new president in China, I seriously doubt that ratings would have been so hot (again, at 1 AM).

Except that, at precisely the moment Obama was delivering his speech, CCTV was broadcasting Sunday’s NFC Championship game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles (see below). Which makes me wonder: if Obama’s inaugural went head-to-head against the Cards and Eagles at 1 AM in China, which event would draw more viewers? My money’s on Obama. [update: in a comment below, Theo correctly points out that the NFC Championship Game would draw a bigger audience among American expats.]

Further thoughts on the strange travails facing NFL fans in China, here.

[UPDATED: Looks like I was a little late to the show. According to Joel at danwei, Obama's address was televised right up to the moment that he spoke this phrase: "earlier generations faced down fascism and communism." Joel links to Hoiking, and a short clip that shows the CCTV broadcasters breaking into the speech, and beginning the broadcast that I photographed above. In my defense, I found the interrupted broadcast after searching through 70 channels of Shanghai and Hong Kong cable. But that's what I get for posting at 3:00 AM!]

[SECOND UPDATE: A couple of people have emailed to ask, in effect: "How could you be so stupid as to miss the fact that the speech was being censored?" All I can say is that it wasn't obvious - to me - as it was happening. Basically, I came to the broadcast only seconds before it was cut, so it looked to me as if CCTV was just providing a brief excerpt.]